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M. JONES SCOTT, Printer, go Camp Street, New Orleans La 



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HISTORICAL SYMOPSIS 

OF THE CLAIM OF THE 

FLORIDA PARISHES »' LOUISIANA 



The iiioorporated antliorities of tlie above described Parishes 
liave i)etitioiied the Legishitive and Executive Departiuents, for 
the first time, for a restitution of the rights which their ances- 
tors acquired by the capture of the King of Spain's Province of 
West Florida at Baton Kouge in the year 1810. 

A bill in harmony with the averments of the petition, has 
been introduced by the Hon. E. W. Robertson, of Louisiana, 
and lias been referred to the Committee on Public Lands. It 
now awaits the consideration and a(;tion of that Committee.* To 
aid that Committee in its researches for the bases of this clainii 
the following- memoraiula, drawn, as we believe, from the most 
authentic sources, are respectfully submitted. As the Bill in 
question embodies the first formal solicitation of those commu- 
nities for the restitution of their rights of inheritance; and as its 
intelligent disposal depends upon the interpretation which may 
be given to a number of leading historical and official events 
which transpired in many different years. We sliall endeavor to 
submit a chronological synopsis of those leading historical and 
official events, as concise, as justice to our Claim, and a conscien- 
tious desire to impose a minimum tax on your patience, will 
admit of. Our citations will be circumscribed to the leading 
events of three epochs in the History of the United States, and 
to facts anti'CivL'ut a:i I subsequent r.'l.itivo to those events. 

THE FIRST EPOCH-1803. 

Recites the transactions of the United States with France in 
the year 1803 concerning the transfer of Louisiana to the former 
power. .To bring these transactions properly under review, it is 
manifest we must refer back to the stipulations of the Treaty 
which was transacted between France and Spain at St. Ildefonso 
in the year 1800. As we purchased from France in 1803, just 



Ilistorical St/nopsin of ihe Claim of the 



the same projierty Avhicli France purchased from Spain in 1800, 
knowledge of the stipulations of the French and Spanish Treaty 
is essential to define the extent of the imrcliase from France in 
1S03. As the Treaty of St. Ildefonso was an act of retrocession 
by Spain to France of certain pro[)erty assigned to Spain, as a 
preferred creditor, in 17G2 by a secret Treaty at the close of a 
long war with Great Britain, wlien France had lost Quebec aiul 
all her dominion in Canada, and feared that all her empire in the 
New World wonhl share the same fate. That Treaty of 17)J2 
although the United States Avas no party to it, may be an impor- 
tant factor in the formation of a correct judgment in t!ie premi- 
ses. Just what the United States acquired bj' purcluise from 
France was a question wliich bewiklered the negotiators of tlie 
Treaty of Purchase, is still in doubt, and is likely to remain for- 
ever in doubt. Mr. Jefferson, in his annual message of 1804, 
discloses some of the doubts which clouded the question, in the 
following paragraph; ''Ihave the satisfaction 'to inform yon, 
that the objections which had been urged by that Government 
(Spain) against t)ie validity of our title to the country of Louis- 
iana-; have been Avithdrawn; its exact limits, however, remaining 
still to be settled between us.'' France had previous to the as- 
signment to Spain in 17G2, asserted an inchoate right to the vast 
empire laying between the Elver Sabine on the East and the IJio 
Grande Del Xorte on the West ; that inchoate right was claimed 
as part of the transfer from France in 1803. Franco liad, before 
the Treaty of Paris of 17()'>, held proprietorship of all the soil on 
the East bank of the Mississii>pi liiver as f.ir South as the Iliver 
Iberville, and the rights of that ancient proprietorship which 
emlnaced the Sijanish Province of West Florida and claimed as 
part of the purchase from France, have been transferred to Great 
Britain by the Treaty of Paris of 17G3 and confirmed to Spain by 
Great Britain in the Treaty of 1783. To settle exactly those limits 
the most accomplished of American diplomatists of that day was 
commissioned Envoy in 1805 to France and Spain with full power 
to negotiate in the premises. The facts below we compile from the 
l)ages of jMr. Garland's Biography of John Bandolph who was 
Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means of the session 
of 1805. As they have never been ])ublished through any other 
channel, they were probably furnished to the Biographer by Mr. 
llandol[)h himself. 

" On the sixth day of l)e<;ember, 1805, tliree days after tlie 
annual message, Mr. Jeliersou sent to Congress a Message Secret 



Floridd FdrlslteH of" Louisiana. 



and GonJi'Jential all propositions in regard to which were dis- 
cussed in conclave, in which, after reciting the failure of live 
months of Mr. Monroe's di[)loHiacy, during which Mr. Monroe 
liad obtained no satisfaction from Spain, other than the flat dec- 
laration that tha L^nited States had ac(|uired no right Eastward 
of tlie River Iberville (iu)w ]Manchac), nor from France any satis- 
faction other than the statement that France had ac([uired from 
S[)ain no riglifc Eastward of tha Iberville, and had meant to de- 
liver none to the United States. After soliciting Congress for 
an appropriation of two millions of dollars, the President says 
in conclusion, "The present crisis in Ii^uropc is favorable for 
pressing a settlement, and not a moment should be lost in avail- 
ing ourselves of it. Should it pass nnimproved, our situation 
would becomQ more diiticult. Formal war is not necessary; it is 
not probable it will follow ; but the protection of our citizens, the 
spirit and honor of our countr}^, require that force should be in- 
terposed to a certain degree.'' 

• Uarland's Life of John l\andolph,'p.p. 214, 21;"), vol. 2. 

As "the exact limits" failed to become detinite and fixed by 
the diplomatists, we are driven to consult the Historians as the 
next best oracle. The following extracts from an authentic his- 
tory shed a ray of light on that involved question: 

" On the 10th of April (181)3) the Marquis de Casa Caho hav- 
ing been appointed with Salcedo as Commissioner on the part of 
Spain for the delivery of Louisiana to France, returned from a 
visit to Havana and entered upon the duties of his office. 

On the iSth of May (ISO.'J) Salcedo issued his proclanmtiou an- 
nouncing the intention of his Catholic Majesty to surrender the 
Province to the French Republic. 

In this proclamation the Goveruor (Salcedo) recited the limits 
of Louisiana, as embraced in the contemplated surrender, to 
include all Louisiana West of the Mississippi, and the Island of 
Xew Orleans on the East side, it being the same ceded to Spain 
by France at the peace of 1703. The settlements on the East 
side of the Mississippi, between the Payon Manchac and 
the thirty-first parallel of latitude, would still pertain to the 
government of West Florida.'' 

Monette Valley of the Mississippi, vol. l,p. 555. 

Still adhering to a line of demonstration which may illuminate 
the enignmtical transactions of the first epoch, two other coin- 
cidents are adduced out of their chronological order, but as ser- 
viceable guides to a correct standard of opinion. 



ni.siork'ol Sij}wp.s!!i of the Claim of the 



On the 20tli daj* of October, 1795, a Treaty was signed at Ma- 
drid between tbe United States and Spain, the second article of 
which stipnhites that the thirty-lirst paraPol of Uititnde from 
the Mississippi to the Chattahoochee shall be the future boun 
dary between the United States and the Floridas. The fourth 
article of the same treaty stipulates that the whole widrh of the 
Mississippi from its source to the sea, sliall be free U* the people 
of the United States. 

After the Chief Magistrate had been refused by Congress the 
two millions he asked to be appropriated, to enable him to ex- 
tract the festering thorn which was held by S])ain in the side of 
the KepubMc, dreadfully raidding and irritating to his schemes 
for founding a continuous empire in the Mississippi Valley. We 
find him from his retirement under the shades ot Monticello urging 
his absorbing idea upon his successor in a new light. "In the event 
of war with great Britain,'' he says in a letter of 1801) to Mi-. 
IVIadison, "You arusT- TxIke Baton Rouge or they will and 
thereby cut off N<^w Orleans from the West and the balance of 
the Union.'' Jefferson's Correspondence, vol. 4, ^j.p. j;U-13i\ 

Does not the language imply plainly, •' The security 
of New Orleans demands war with Spain unless the irritating 
■wedge whicli splits in twain our vast empire in the Valley of the 
Mississippi, be extracted in the meantime.?"' The course of 
events did not How smoothly and pleasantly through the yeai's 
of the first epoch, for the great statesman who had presided in 
chief at the birth of the young giant, for whom he was striving 
80 zealously to found an empire large enough for him to stretch 
his lusty limbs in. Claiming to the Rio Grande and foiled ; 
claiming to the River Perdido and Ibiled again! Asking Con- 
gress for two million dollars to consolidate an empire wider than 
half the civilized world and snubbed! What American with a 
heart can withhold respectful sympathy with the disai)[)oint- 
nients and defeats of a great statesman who was fighting almost 
single-handed a losing battle for the grandeur and glory of the 
country he loved so Avell ? What patriotic heait can refuse its 
meed of adnuration for the indomitable pluck of a statesman, 
who after the failure of so many expedients, could still devise a 
new plan to perfect Ins sagacious schemes. 

The Committee is now resi)ectfully solicited to accompany us 
while we develop the course ef events which marked 



Florida rarisltcs of LouiKlana. 



THE SECOND EPOCH-1810. 

lu the year 1810, just one year after Mr. Jefferson suggested 
to his successor an approacliing contingency iclien he must take 
Baton Rouge. The ancestors of the present chiiiuants, without 
even a smattering- of statesmanlike sagacity, but only in a re- 
sentful spiiit for seven years of Spanish insolence and opi>res- 
sion, assembled in arms 'An(\{{\(\talcc Baton Bougc ! and out of the 
capture of that city and the Spanisli g;irrison wbi^ih defended it, 
flowed some consequences quite aftiiiitive to the comi)lica*:ions of 
the epoch of 1803. It settled at once and peremptorily all ques- 
tions either of law or fact, concerning the destination of the 
King- of Spain's Province of West Florida under the interpreta- 
tions of the Treaty of 1803. The guaranties of that much inter- 
preted Treaty were not invoked by any of the parties to the 
shor', crisp, rattling- struggle between the insurgents and their 
oppressors within the walls of tlie Fort at Baton Eouge. A ca- 
pitulation and notice to quit on short time were about t\vn only 
stipulations of the new Treaty of 1810 ! As ihe title to the soil 
which is asserted in the Bill now before the Committee, is found- 
ed on the transactions between the insurgents and the King of 
Spain's representative within tlie Fort at Baton llouge- We 
may be pardoned if we dwell in a gratulatory mood over 
events which were i)reg-nant with sucli a rich endowment for our 
ancestors and their descendants, — with such immediate accessions 
to the safety, power and glory of the Republic. Our citations, 
culled from the most authentic records of those events, are made 
with a view to enable the CouMiiittee to determine intelligently 
the scope and measure of the conquest achieved by our ancestors- 
They are also offered to demonstrate tlie extent of the obliga" 
tions of the lve[)nblic, to a small body of citizens, who with 
halters around their necks did a great work which enabled a re- 
nowned General of the Republic lo prepare a victorious defence 
of the rich city of New Orleans, and provide against an invasion 
of the rich Valley of the Mississippi, — a work, which obviated, 
the necessity of going to war with Spain, and which removed 
forever the most irritating and ras[)ing thorn that ever rankled 
in the body of the Republic ! 

In the Fort at Baton Rouge, the first Grandson of the Repub- 
lic was born ! His sires were a smaQ body of restless, roving- 
adventurers, citizens, who had taken a lively interest in the War 
of the Revolution and who, though not exactly " the cankers of 

calm world and a long peace,'' were ever on the search for new 



6 Historical Synopsis of the Claim of the 

forests to conquer, aud were not much enamored of the hunulrum 
methods of ceremonious civilization. Tliey christened the ohlest 
born of the Republic's children of the second generation— West 
Florida ! And it is to jireserve the inheritance transmitted to 
that heir by his sires, that these clainumts are invohing the in- 
terposition of Congress and the Chief Magistrate in fixing defi- 
nite limits to the estate left him by his ancestors. Are his rights 
to be ascertained by the variable interpretations of the Treaty 
of 1803 ? Or do they come througli a ne^y contract sealed and 
isioned by Spain in Baton Rouge in 1810? If the imze our an- 
cestors captured at Baton Rouge is claimed to be the property of 
the United States by virtue of the transfer from France in 1803- 
In that case we reply that our ancestors picked up an abandoned 
vessel, without a captain, without a crew, without a flag to de- 
note her nationality ; drifting around loose on Spanish waters 
l]astward of the Iberville where cruisers of the United States 
were forbidden. They brought the abandoned vessel safely into 
port, and as salvors they claim the ownership of vessel and cargo. 
If the prize belonged to the King of Spain, in that case, we set 
up the same title which was bequeathed by the er.piring Hebrew 
Patriarch to his favorite son, "Moreover I have given to thee 
one portion above thy brethreii, which I took out of the hand of 
the Amorite with my sword and with my bow." 

Genesis, ch. xlviii, v. 22. 
If our deductions from the conquest of this domain by our 
ancestors in 1810 are too grasping, we will submit Avithout a 
murmur should the Congress see fit to reduce them to harmony 
with any fair standard of natural riglit, which comports with 
the honor of the Republic. There are two transactions, how- 
ever, of nearly even dates which may shed a flood of liglit upon 
(]uestions concerning the scope of the inherited rights we are 
claiiniug. The Act admitting Louisiana into the Union, on a 
footing of equality with the other sovereign States was passed 
April 1st, 1812. The Act "Enlarging the limits of Louisiana," 
by which onr domain was covered into the public domain of the 
United States, was passed April 15, 1812. If the last Act leaveg 
untouched and undefined all questions relating to title to the 
soil it should be remembered that it was a AVar Measure adopt- 
ed just six weeks 2)reliminary to the Declaration of War against 
Great Britain. That may be considered ample exi)lanatJon of 
an omission of a body which has always kept the hands of the 
Republic clean from the stain of territorial robbery. If tno 



Florida Parishes of Louisiana. 



omission Las never since been supplied, it is because no formal 
application for redress lias been lodged with the Government by 
the parties aggrieved by the omission, until the petition was 
filed, on which the Bill now before the Committee, is founded. 

Although the original archives, of such a short lived nation- 
ality, are not readily obtainable, even if they exist; there are, 
nevertheless, some scraps of cotemporary history extant which 
demonstrate quite lucidly how our ancestors, proceeded step by 
step to organize and consolidate their trophy of successful revo- 
lution. Some of those scraps of cotemporary history are sub- 
joined: — 

" They therefore declared themselves absolved from all alle- 
giance to a Government which no longer protected them and 
declared the Territori<^y ot West Florida a free and independent 
State. 

American State Papers, vol. vii, pp. 482-484. 

•' A Constitution was adopted, and a form of State Govern- 
ment organized under the name of the "State of Florida," and 
Fulwar Skii)with was appointed Governor. 

'• On the 11th of October, 1810, the Convention ordered a for- 
mal application through its President, John Khea, to the Fed- 
eral authorities of the United States for admission irito the 
Union. This application was transmitted through (Jovernor 
Holmes of the Mississippi Territory to the Acting Secretary of 
State for the United States. It expresses the hope and desire 
that this Commonwealth may be immediately acknowledged and 
protected as an integral part of the American Union, and re- 
quests the most direct and unequivocal assurances of the views 
and wishes of the American Government without delay, "since 
our weak and unprotected situation will oblige us to look to 
some foreign Government for support, should it be refused by 
the country which we have considered our parent State." 

IMonette, vol. ii, p. 488. 

" In case the United States recognize their claim to protection 
the Convention in behalf of their constituents, claims immediate 
admission into the Union as an independent State, or as a Ter- 
ritory of the United States with permission to adopt their own 
form of government, or to be annexed to one of the adjacent 
territories, more especially to that of Orleans. They solicit also 
a loan of one hundred thousand dollars upon the gucnsuitee of the 
public lands! and permission to be governed by their own laws 



,9 Historical Synopfih of ihe Claim of the 

enacted bj- the Conventiou until annexation is consummated.'' 

Monette, vol. ii, p. 489. 

In November following-, with the Spanish lialter tightening in 
imagination around their necks, they embarked on a wider field 
of action. " They equipped, under command of Col. Reuben 
Kemper, an expedition against the Spanish city of Mobile. For 
the support of which they loaded a keelboat at Baton Rouge, 
Avith Western produce and a considerable supply of whiskey. 
And dispatched the keel boat down Bayou Manchac, the Amite 
River, through the lakes and the Mississippi Sound to the relief 
of their little army camped on the shores of Mobile Bay, opi)0- 
site the city, with no means of reaching it by wat:r. 

Pickett's Alabama, vol ii, pp . 237-238. 

We are not informed positively, of the precise shape in which 
the jurisdiction of the United States was extended over the State 
of Florida ; whether it came by Proclamation of President Madi- 
son of 1810, accompanied with a projnise that their ^'essential 
rights and equitable interests''' should be provided for, or whether 
it came in the more formal shape of an Act of Congress of April 
15, 1812, incorporating the State of Florida with the public do- 
main, unaccompanied by a i)romise of any kind. It is admitted 
that the jurisdiction was warndy invoked by our ancestors 
and was most welcome when it came. They never protested 
against the jurisdiction, nor do we. The only question which is 
now for the first time submitted to Congress and the President 
is, " in whom is the title to the soil ivhlch our aiieestors took out of 
the hands of the Spaniards iclth their shot-guns and rlfes?.'^ 

Before closing our review of the events of the Second 
Epoch, we think it is ai)propriate to recite a few of the most im- 
nu diate and solid advantages which resulted to the Republic 
from the peiilous achievement of our ancestors at Baton Rouge. 
By instantaneous operation of the Act of Congress of April 15, 
1812. A line of navigable waters which afforded facilities to a 
foreign fleet to blockade New Orleans from above, was placed 
under the full control of the Republic. 

Relieved by the possession of Baton Rouge and its dependen- 
cies from that peril, the Republic could venture to declare war 
against its overbearing and insulting adversary, which it did 
six weeks after our incorporation into the Union, 'n the autumn 
and winter of 1811 General Jackson was enabled to quarter his 
army and recruit his cavalry on the pastures of our domain 
Avitiiin easy commnnication with the city of New Orleans 5 and 



Florida Pari shea of Louisiana. 



by building a tlylvc across the River mouth of the Mauchac he 
not ouly excluded hostile vessels from the Mississippi, but se- 
cured a line of retreat by land for his army in case of disaster 
before New Orleans. To illustrate the importance of that dyke 
to the movement oi troops, it is only necessary to state the fact 
that (len. Coflee received orders to repair to the threatened city, 
" and not to sleep until he arrived,''' on the 17th of December, 
1S14, at Baton Kouge, and on the 19th of December he encamp- 
ed within fifteen miles of New Orleans with twelve hundred 
mounted volunteers; In conclusion of our review of the trans- 
actions of the epoch of 1810, we beg leave to disclaim any of the 
guarantees of the much interpreted Treaty of 1803. Our char- 
ter dates from the signature to the capitulation at Batou 
]iouge forced from the King of Spain, by our bold ancestors, just 
as the Barons of England forced King John to sign 2Iagna 
Charta at Eunnymede! The Charter forced from King John at 
Runnymede has been held sacred by the British Government for 
more than six hundred years. Has not the Charter forced by 
our ancestors from King Ferdinand, at Baton Rouge, an equal 
claim upon the Government of the United States ? 

It should be steadily borne in mind that the conveyance made 
to us at Baton Rouge in 1810 was a matter rigidly di-tinct trom 
the transaction of the United States with France in 1803, Our 
transferor having always persistently denied that the domain 
transferred was in any manner aliected by any of the stipula- 
tions of the Treaty of 1803. 

Although the records of a Government which has alwaj's dealt 
tenderly and conscientiously with the rights of its weaker neigh- 
bors, furnish abundant precedents for the restitution the Claim- 
ants are askhig for, there is one precedent which besides being 
the latest is considered the most analogous in its main features 
to the conditions which environ the equitable adjustment of the 
matters now submitted lor your consideration. To find that 
analogous (almost synonymous) precedent we must glance at 
some of the events of the third epoch. 



10 Historical Sijnopsis of tin- Claim of the 

THIRD EPOCH-1846. 

AYe lla^ e alreadj' seen by a cursory glance at the events of the 
first and second epoclia, that the reverberations of the shot guns 
and rifles fired by our ancestors at Baton Rouge, did not much 
startle the ear of a ealm and peaceful world. Had its real sig- 
nificance been appreciated, it would have been hailed as the 
FIRST siciNAL GUN which announced that the struggle between 
the Anglo Saxon and the Latin was about to commence in the 
JSTew World. Had it been scrutinized by the light of coming- 
events, it would have been recognized as the harbinger of San 
Jacinto, Palo Alto, Resaca de la Pal ma, Matamoras, Monterey, 
-Buena Vista ; of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Chapulte- 
pec, Molino del Rey, Mexico. — as the death knell of many a lion- 
hearted patriot of either race ! 

The SECOND SIGNAL GUN was fired at San Jacinto by the An- 
glo Saxon citizens of Texas in 183G ! For tlie next ten years the 
Texans were engaged in organizing and consolidating the splen- 
did trophy of their con<piest over tlie Spanish race at San Ja- 
cinto. From the Sabine to the Rio Grande del i^orte all that 
vast empire, the inchoate right to which France had sold to the 
United States in 1803, passed under the jurisdiction of the Lone 
Star State, whicli sprang full armed into the astonished world 
at San Jacinto in 183G ! 

In 184() the ties of consanguinity began to bring- 
the kindred dwelling East and West of the River Sabine 
nearer together. " If you come with ns," said the more 
powerful branch of the family, " yon shall have full title to the 
soil of every foot of that territory you wrested from the Mexi- 
cans at San Jacinto, that we define to be the scope of your 
'■'■ eqiiitahle interests." "In iurther definition oi yowv essential 
rights you shall be clothed henceforth in rhe full pano^jly of citi- 
zens of the United States !" We offer this to the Committee as 
not only a truthful and succinct interpretation of the Treaty of 
Texan annexation in 1840, but as the fust and only authoritative 
definition of the terms of Mr. JMadison's promise to us. 

We do not forget that there is a point of difference in the 
transactions between Texas and the United States, which is not 
to be found in the transactions betMCcn ns and the United 
States. They shielded their rights nnder the guarantees of a 
Treaty — a difference which may seem to casuists who attach more 
im])ovtance to sound than substance, to be an essential missing 



Florida Parishes of Louisiana. 11 

link in our case. Texas, after ten years of self government, was 
a nascent Republic recognized among the Nations ; thoroughly 
organized with Civil, Military, Naval, Judicial and Diplomatic 
paraphernalia. The State of Florida, on the other hand, after 
two years of self-government of a diminutive domain had per- 
fected nothing of all the paraphernalia necessary to dealings 
with other nations, its efforts at organization had achieved only 
a satisfactory system of internal government. It was, in fact, 
but a weak, unfriended, unrecognized and unrepresented nation- 
ality. Its poverty, friendlessuess, and want of all the parapher- 
nalia essential to the management of affairs with other nations 
is urged as its strongest claim to the generous and considerate 
arbitration of Congress and tiie Chief Magistrate. 
Most respectfully submitted by 

HENRY SKIPWITH, 
Agent and Attorney in Fact of the Florida Parishes. 



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